Literature is invention. Fiction is fiction. To call a story a true story is an insult to both art and truth.
Vladimir NabokovI knew I had fallen in love with Lolita forever; but I also knew she would not be forever Lolita.
Vladimir NabokovDirect interference in a person's life does not enter our scope of activity, nor, on the other, tralatitiously speaking, hand, is his destiny a chain of predeterminate links: some 'future' events may be linked to others, O.K., but all are chimeric, and every cause-and-effect sequence is always a hit-and-miss affair, even if the lunette has actually closed around your neck, and the cretinous crowd holds its breath.
Vladimir Nabokov